Classical Music in Review

By James R. Oestreich

Published: May 16, 1992

New York Philharmonic Avery Fisher Hall

One of Zubin Mehta's laudable innovations as music director of the Philharmonic was to put members of the orchestra forward as soloists with some frequency. Kurt Masur has carried on the practice without missing a beat; indeed, the current subscription program includes no fewer than seven soloists in five works.

The happiest combination of performance and work at the first concert, on Thursday evening, came in the American premiere of the Concerto for Trumpet and Small Orchestra by Jacques Hetu, a Canadian, with Philip Smith as soloist. By the composer's own description, the work is happy and uncomplicated; it is written in a dry, snappy, neoclassical style. Mr. Smith breezed through its difficulties almost flawlessly.

In Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, given its New York premiere by Jeanne Baxtresser, specific influences are more apparent: Shostakovich in the first movement, Stravinsky in the last. The solo part is more notable for lyricism than for virtuosity, and Ms. Baxtresser sang the lines fluently.

Philip Myers contributed two oddments for horn: Dukas's "Villanelle," orchestrated by Vitaly Bujanowski, and Chabrier's Larghetto. Mr. Myers had many fine moments and, especially on a natural, valveless horn at the beginning of the Dukas, some shaky ones, with wildly uneven voicing of the hand-shaped tones.

For a critic who had heard little of the Philharmonic under Mr. Masur this season, the opening performance, of Haydn's Sinfonia Concertante in B flat, was as notable for the lovely, plush sound of the whole orchestra as for the work of the soloists: Joseph Robinson, oboist; David Carroll, bassoonist; Charles Rex, violinist, and Alan Stepansky, cellist. Mr. Robinson actually made a more distinct impression with his fine solos in a rough, blustery account of "La Valse," by Ravel.